Homeless in California: Looking to Buy Motels

This LA Times (Aug 5, 2021) article is focused on Gov. Gavin Newsom seemingly playing politics in order to hold off the recall election so is therefore dated, but there was some interesting data points in the article:

The latest state budget commits $12 billion over the next two years to not just more motel purchases and funding for mental health care facilities but also encampment cleanups and hazardous waste removal.

. . . The state assisted local governments in purchasing hotel rooms and apartments for 6,000 people at a cost of nearly $750 million — the largest expansion of shelter and housing for homeless people in the the state’s history.

I really wonder if buying up hotels and apartment complexes will work over the long run in dealing with homelessness or actually make is worse by making it look more attractive to try and get free housing.

I'm not opposed to homeless shelters, but giving the homeless their own individual rooms? I did look kindly in how Los Angeles was building cheap housing out of used shipping containers. But what about just using military barrack type housing where you have a number of people living in large quarters? Wouldn't that be even cheaper? 

It just seems to me that buying up hotels and apartments is more like a bailout of property owners who are probably eager to sell because they figure they can use the capital more efficiently elsewhere.